Looking back at 22nd January 2024, the day of the Ram Mandir’s consecration ceremony at Ayodhya, I remember gazing outside my window and finding a few young men shouting “Jai shree Ram” in a fashion that sounded rather cavalier. I claimed in that moment that this general election is going to be the cleanest sweep that the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) has ever made. To my and all of our surprise, it turned out that the INDIA bloc “Ate and left almost no crumbs” to be swept off, as one might say.

Although, NDA secured an absolute majority in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections by winning 292 seats forming a majority government at the centre, the larger shock was the loss of the seat in Ayodhya that comes under the Faizabad constituency. If not the Ram Mandir, what do Indians want? What made BJP’s avowal of a score card depicting 400+ seats for NDA seem like an old wives’ tale? Despite the Indian economy emerging as among the top performers globally in terms of economic growth with a GDP growth rate of 8.2% in FY24; the rising prices of necessities like gas cylinders and fuel likely played spoilsport for the party’s prospects in several states where the BJP previously had commendable records of securing a large vote share. Fuel prices typically have a direct impact on inflation. Further, lack of jobs under the Modi government in the last ten years with the unemployment rate observing a hike from 7.98% in 2014 to 9.2% in 2024 with 44.49% of India’s youth being unemployed. Probably, the reality of the lack of basic necessities over powered the utopian idea of a Hindu nation.

Another major factor dominating the Indian political scenario during the 2024 elections was the unrest amongst the marginalised communities over reservations where the Opposition managed to leverage caste in a way to cause the almost unimaginable rupture of the Hindu vote bank that the NDA had presided over for almost a decade. INC leader Rahul Gandhi, during one of his speeches claimed that Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) will remove the ‘50 percent cap’ on the reservation in reference to the fact that 50% of the reservations cannot be provided under the existing provisions and asserted on conducting a caste census throughout the country to ensure the same. The Opposition’s portrayal of this as one of the major grounds of social and economic injustice in India under the Modi government perhaps resonated with the Dalit, OBC and other marginalised communities.

“The mandate is decisively against Narendra Modi, against him and the substance and style of his politics” Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said at the INDIA meeting.

In my opinion, an addition to all said and done, the Prime Minister’s rather absurd statements referring to himself as sent by god, asserting on distorted meanings of the manifestos of other parties made him nothing but a subject to mockery and that is where the BJP’s talisman fell victim to what Max Weber conceptualised as the ‘routinisation of charisma’.

What does this mean for India as the world’s largest democracy?

 The INDIA bloc secured 232 seats forming a rejuvenated Opposition alliance claiming that ‘not all battles are fought for victory’. This has re-established the coalition politics in the Indian political status quo giving greater regard to diversity and the voice of the citizenry. The Lok Sabha, with the Indian National Congress(INC) securing 18% of the total strength of the House, has Rahul Gandhi as the Leader of the Opposition for the first time in 10 years. HKS Assistant Professor of Public Policy Gautam Nair, who studies the politics of inequality and redistribution with a special focus on South Asia, commenting on the 2024 General Elections in India, emphasised that,

“Sectarian and social divisions have always run below the surface of India’s polity, the logic of electoral competition brings them to the surface, but the same logic can lead to dynamic and even unlikely alliances. The results of the elections evidently display that the Hindu nationalist message seemingly failed to resonate across much of the electorate.”

To me, this is what seems like democracy’s dissent to authoritarianism, rejection of majoritarian mobilisation, and restoration of hope for a secular India. Particularly, Modi’s forces are not invincible anymore, nor is his charisma blinding. The idea of a Viksit Bharat must incorporate the values of freedom and democracy. BJP’s Hindutva rhetoric has comprehensively failed to be the only driving force for the assumed ‘supermajority’ and an apprehended ‘landslide victory’ for them. While BJP’s ‘Ramban’ has failed to hit the fish’s eye, one can hope for them to agglomerate the ‘sanjeevni’ for themselves to mend their ways of politics, for they are surely no more a power that cannot be reckoned with.

Questioning the credibility of the INDIA Bloc

Formed in an effort to oppose the NDA government in the 2024 elections, the INDIA bloc comprises of 26 parties, both national and regional and is ideologically based in the principles of developmentalism, inclusivity and social justice. The INDI Alliance won over 230 seats in the 2024 elections forming more than 40% of the elected representatives in the Lok Sabha.

How tenable is the INDIA bloc though? William H. Riker, concerning political coalition for the benefit of minorities, argued that “the larger the coalition, the shorter-lived it is.” In the vibrant tapestry of Indian politics, the INDIA bloc faces a myriad of obstacles, ranging from internal disunity to a communication conundrum to issues regarding congress dominance, etc. and has been at various times regarded as “fragmented” and an opposition with “no clear vision or leadership” by the ruling party. As it strives to maintain a cohesive alliance against the ruling BJP, I believe that, the INDIA bloc, even if not in power, are doing a competent job at ensuring accountability of those in power. Where the INDIA bloc has been consequently accused of using caste as a means to sway the electorate, it is not distant from the means of politics that has had BJP form the government at the centre, the third consecutive time. The question that comes with this is how viable these means are. The future is uncertain and while the coalition brings together a diverse array of parties united by a common goal, the journey is anything but straightforward.

Concluding Remarks

The BJP’s instrumentalisation of faith as a marker of identity to consolidate the Hindu vote bank is a gambit that is secluded from the core of India’s cultural genesis embedded in the virtue of Dharma. Dharma not being the principles of secularism, religion or Hindutva as we understand it today, but rather as the foundational concept signifying righteousness and moral duty which guides individual and societal conduct. Hindu nationalism in the last decade had somehow become a tool of diversion from issues that render worse consequences for citizens than not building a temple ever would’ve. It is therefore, that the polarisation of politics was strikingly conspicuous to the public with time. One could even humorously suggest that there was a collective ‘eureka moment’ of the fact that “god helps those who help themselves”. Indians must embrace the responsibility of self-determination, carefully weighing the consequences they are prepared to endure. To decide if the Ram Mandir or any religious triumph per say will bestow the dignity they seek; to consider the complex social ramifications of implementing a caste census—whether it might lead to adverse social dynamics or enhance affirmative action and ultimately, to decide what are they willing to sacrifice in pursuit of certain aspirations and ideals.

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